McKenzie County ND

Success! It’s the one word description of McKenzie County’s Horizon program for leadership development and poverty reduction. Now, nearing the end of this eighteen month opportunity, we can take a look at where we are, how we got here and what’s been accomplished along the way.

Where we are:
You’ll find us at http://mckenzie.communityblogs.us/ There’ll you’ll find six bloggers seizing the opportunity to declare to the world “what’s happening” in McKenzie County and its constituent communities of Keene, Watford City, Arnegard, and Alexander. Examples of emerging leadership, community accomplishments, and conveying vital information for poverty reduction get posted. Those who surf the web hoping to find “the good” about McKenzie County, either in hopes of moving here themselves or in recruiting people to move here, will find our site an “oasis” of content.
You’ll find us at meetings of boards, committees, civic clubs, kitchen conversations, and lunch tables promoting our strategic plan that has four goals–Goal 1: To Establish A Diversified Economy and Plentiful Jobs; Goal 2: To Establish Intergenerational Participation Throughout Our Communities, Businesses, Organizations and Activities; Goal 3: To Establish Sufficient Services for Health, Housing, Transportation and Job Opportunities; Goal 4: To Establish Quality Intergenerational Leadership Opportunities to Enhance the Quality of Life in Our Community. (See http://mckenzie.communityblogs.us/our-vision/)
You’ll find us in partnership with our Community Coalition and the local SADD chapter. With the Coalition we’re putting on a town hall meeting “Mapping Success for our Youth.” With the SADD chapter we’ve started them on a blog, sponsored their activities, and brought their leader into our Steering Committee.
You’ll find us active in the geographically largest county in North Dakota and the sixth largest county in America. The four communities stretch out for fifty miles along Hwy 23 and total over 1700 citizens. These demographic and geographic challenges brought us a very diverse set of opinions.

How we got here:
Every initiative takes some fired-up people and there was a handful that caught fire with the vision of the possibilities back in 2006. Though there’s been turnover, this vision: “Looking to establish a flourishing future for our human habitat, we envision a time when poverty is only a transitory experience and all residents of our county-wide community enjoy a quality of life that includes meaningful and productive work; restful and restorative leisure; quality leadership; the fellowship of family and neighbor; and all know the joy of our natural resources” still fires us up. (See http://mckenzie.communityblogs.us/our-vision/)
Establishing a Steering Committee, getting recruits for Facilitator Training, and scheduling the Study Circles on Poverty carried us through the initial months. There’s enough success in McKenzie County to mask the poverty rate of one in eight. Our Study Circles—seven of them in our four communities and consisting of 60 plus participants—brought new light upon many with negative attitudes toward the poor and brought the poor into constructive conversation regarding just how poverty could be reduced.
Our Community Action Forum concluded these months of conversation as dozens of people from the Study Circles, from leadership positions, and from the community at large gathered to distill the findings of the Circles’ many sessions. From this Forum forty action ideas were generated and several participants were recruited to engage the LeadershipPlenty training.
Our two trainers went on to bring 26 people through the LeadershipPlenty program. These two dozen plus became assets as our Steering Committee planned for the county-wide survey.
Distribution of the necessary survey challenged our group. Then inspiration struck: “Why not use already planned community gatherings to distribute the survey and gather the responses?” We made it so. Across our county’s four communities, congregational gatherings, civic club meetings, Thrivent benefit breakfasts, and governing board meetings all gave us opportunity to distribute the survey, describe our Horizons’ program, and collect the completed forms. We took in over 300 surveys and submitted them for collation to our partners at NDSU Extension Service.
The offer of even more input came as the Extension Service proposed bringing a “Group Decision Center” into our communities. We seized the offer and scheduled the Center for a session in Alexander and Watford City. Again, several dozen citizens participated and the results were collated.
Our Steering Committee’s last challenge of 2007 was to write a “Vision Statement and Strategic Plan” using the collated input from all our work during the year. The challenge was met, the vision codified and the plan laid out.
2008 brought a new challenge: recruit bloggers for training and to establish a blog for our county. Again, challenge met, four bloggers recruited and trained initially with at least two more signed up later.

What we have accomplished:
If there would not have been a few people representing our four communities who caught the vision early on and got “fired-up” with its potential, we wouldn’t have achieved these successes. Just having these diverse communities–spread out over fifty miles–join together in this program was an initial and vital accomplishment.
Already action steps and objectives listed under our Strategic Goals are being achieved: Under Goal 1—career tracks are being established in the McKenzie County Healthcare System, the idea of a jobs training school has received attention, the community bulletin board is there on the blog, and the Lewis and Clark Museum is working on the “Old West Experience;” under Goal 2—we’ve partnered with the Community Coalition and the SADD Chapter, day care is up and running, and town hall meetings teach and promote life skills; under Goal 3—compliance checks and Crime Stoppers are being organized by local law enforcement; under Goal 4—in that variety of meetings, we’re advocating the inclusion of youth and the elderly on boards, councils, and committees.

Conclusion:
With so much success under our belts—and more to come, we’re eagerly anticipating this result:
“2012 will find our county with a diversified economy and plentiful jobs; sufficient healthcare, housing, and human services to satisfy the needs of our residents so they may enjoy the aforementioned quality of life; all generations actively interacting with one another—neither age nor economics are barriers to participation in community leadership; and everyone—young and old, rich and poor—take responsibility for our community’s appearance, success, and attractiveness.” (See http://mckenzie.communityblogs.us/our-vision/)

Post Script: (from Doro)

Alexander is a part of the Alexander, Arnegard, Watford City, Keene group.
The talking circles were fun in Alexander—because our participants were ladies with no computer skills. However, they came up with an idea for an Old West Experience. They thought of all sorts of things we could sell on E-Bay. They also recognized some of our new enterprises in the area that we could promote. Alexander is the home of former Governor Arthur Link and Bobby
Knight comes here to hunt. Alexander is the Champion of Great Ideas!